EIU Ranks Broadband Ambition

South Korea Has Most Ambitious Broadband Plans According to EIU. Image via Wikipedia

The Economist Intelligence Unit – the custom research division of the Economist Group – has created a “government broadband index”. The index ranks various countries on the basis of their governments’ broadband ambitions.

According to the EIU, “Countries topping our index are the ones deemed to have the most ambitious speed, coverage and rollout targets, the most appropriate regulations for realising targets and fostering a competitive broadband market, and where public-funding commitments are putting the least amount of pressure on public-sector finances.”

The firm doesn’t make clear whether the index takes account of likelihood of Luddite administrations seizing power in the interim – and scuppering plans. But, these days, high speed internet connections are popular with most democratic parties (although some governments have a penchant for shutting the internet down if the public mood goes in the wrong direction).

Hardly surprisingly, the EIU puts South Korea at the head of the ‘broadband ambitions’ pack – given its plans for wall-to-wall Gigabit Ethernet for the majority of the population in the not-too-distant future.  The poor old UK is languishing at the bottom wearing the dunce’s cap with Italy, Germany and Greece.

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